Insect feeding and contamination of nectar feeders is a familiar problem and numerous attempts have been made to deter insects from feeding and contaminating nectar feeders. The most frequently used approach is to use a liquid filled moat to prevent crawling insects from reaching the feeder. These moats are either hung interposed as in "Insect Trap for a Bird Feeder" of Hiday, U.S. Pat. No. 4,980,990, or incorporated as a portion of the feeder as in "Hummingbird Feeder" of Queen, U.S. Pat. No. 3,301,220. These moat designs require regular refilling, unpleasant cleaning, and do not protect the feeder from flying insects. Bee and ant guards are incorporated in the "Hummingbird Feeding Device" of Fowler U.S. Pat. No. 3,125,069.
Although not related to rectar feeders, U.S. Pat. No. 3,558,022 to Zytko et al. discloses a "Container Safety Closure" that is penetrated with a dispensing dropper. The structure of this device is unsuitable for use in protecting nectar feeders from contamination for a number of reasons: First, the device is intended to form a tight hermetic seal. As such, it would require a relatively high displacement force to allow for the penetration of a bird's bill. Second, along with this high displacement force, and due to the high frictional coefficient of resilient materials, there would be a large frictional resistance to the penetration and withdrawal of a bird's bill. Third, the structure of the device would serve to trap insects at its lowest point, once there, they would have a high probability of being introduced into the feeder by a penetrating bill. Finally, the structure of the device does not lend itself to installation on any known nectar feeder type.
Whatever precise merits, features, and advantages of the above cited references, none of them achieves or fulfills the purpose of the nectar feeder access device of the present invention.
The principal object of the present invention is to provide simple devices to be installed on nectar feeders which will permit easy penetration of the bird's bill, while restricting the entry of any insect life. It is also the object of the present invention to provide such devices as can be readily installed on many of the popular nectar feeder configurations. A further object is to provide devices that can be integrated into a new design of nectar feeder, which are simple, reliable, and inexpensive to manufacture.